“Doing something to spur employment today is so important, but there seems to be no political will to do that,” said Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard University. “They seem to be not thinking very clearly about the short-run needs of the economy versus the long-run need to have a more nimble government. This is a debate worth having, but in the next year the sensible thing to do is to spur the economy.”

Although “stimulus” is a dirty word in some circles, the economy could use some support. There are still about 13 million unemployed people, about 6 million of whom have been out of work for more than half a year.

“In terms of the human capital story, when you have a lot of people unemployed for a long time, that’s very worrisome because the longer people are unemployed, the harder it is to find a job, and the more likely they are to never work again,” said Susan Houseman, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Friday morning the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls in November rose 120,000, compared with 100,000 in October, while the unemployment rate declined to 8.6% from 9%. Read more about employment in November. Earlier this week, data signaled that private-payroll growth sharply accelerated in November, led by services and small businesses. Read more about private payrolls.

There are a couple of employment-related proposals that could see approval in coming weeks. Congress is working to extend a payroll tax cut, as well as special federal unemployment insurance benefits. Read more about payroll tax cut.

“If they don’t [extend the payroll tax cut], then the risks of going back into a recession next year are quite high,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “It will help preserve jobs. Without it people will have less cash, and they will spend less cash and that will cost jobs.”

There has been some recent progress in Washington. The president signed a veterans’ jobs bill into law, offering tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed veterans. Obama also recently signed into law a bill to reform the patent system by cutting application waiting times, among other provisions. And the U.S. has passed several free trade bills.

Here are a few more job-creation strategies, on a smaller scale than the 2009 stimulus, that have some appeal to both liberals and conservatives.

Cut red tape

Streamlining the regulatory and legal environment could positively impact the job market, analysts say. Here’s one way: Make it easier for international visitors to come to the U.S.

“Listen to people in the leisure and hospitality industries — foreigners are having trouble getting visas. There are security issues, but it’s also bureaucratic. The leisure industry is a big job creator. These aren’t high-paying jobs, but at this point we have a lot of unemployed workers that could use the work,” Zandi said.

The VISIT USA Act, a proposal from Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat of New York, and Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah, aims to increase international tourism and investment in the U.S. by speeding up the visa process, among other provisions. Separately, the House recently approved in a 389-15 vote a bill, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, to make it easier for skilled immigrants to obtain visas.

“I’m thrilled to see this pro-growth, pro-jobs, and pro-family legislation pass the House of Representatives,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican of Utah, who sponsored the skilled immigrants bill.

There’s also red tape to be cut when it comes to infrastructure, and the permitting process could be speedier, said James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

“There’s capital that’s sitting on the sideline that could be used. A lot of major investment just takes a really long time to get through the approval process. If you move up the timeline, it encourages more investment to take place,” Sherk said.

In October the White House announced 14 infrastructure projects, such as working on New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge, to go through expedited permitting and environmental review processes, “to help job-creating infrastructure projects move as quickly as possible from the drawing board to completion.”

Extend work-sharing programs

Economists also say expanding work-sharing programs could save jobs.

Work-sharing programs aim to encourage companies to reduce hours for workers rather than lay them off, with the government making up a portion of workers’ earnings that would otherwise be lost. While workers may not hold onto a whole paycheck, they do take home greater earnings than they would otherwise, and more remain employed.

Governments can use unemployment-insurance funds to pay for keeping workers at work. There are at least two major advantages to this approach. One, workers maintain a current skill set. Two, employers maintain connections with workers.

“If [employers] think there’s some chance that they will come through from the downturn, they would like to keep workers on, otherwise they lose skilled employees and have to recruit people again and start from scratch,” Houseman said.

Over the summer Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, introduced a bill to support state-based work-sharing programs, noting that more than 20 states already have programs, and that such programs have saved hundreds of thousands of jobs in the past few years.

One impediment is that many employers don’t know about state work-sharing programs. Also the process to set up a program can be particularly time consuming.

“The take-up rates are very low,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Also, they tend to be very bureaucratic, and don’t give employment much flexibility.”

Invest in local, state infrastructure

On Friday, Obama announced an almost $4 billion investment for energy efficient buildings, including almost $2 billion of private capital. Still, when it comes to infrastructure, the parties continue to disagree about how to pay for projects, though U.S. lawmakers may vote on a new long-term transportation bill in coming months, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Although funds are low, states can try to move forward with their own projects. In Michigan, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is encouraging infrastructure investment, focusing on areas such as transportation, water and sewer systems, and the broadband telecommunications network.

“Michigan’s infrastructure is living on borrowed time,” Snyder said in October. “We must reinvest in it if we are to successfully reinvent our economy. I haven’t met a Michigan driver yet who is satisfied with the condition of our roads and yet we’re facing a $1.4 billion shortfall just to maintain our current system.”

Economists like infrastructure projects because they can get people back to work quickly.

“It’s not digging holes and filling them. You are making an investment that should have a payout to the economy in the future,” Houseman said.

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